Monte Cristo

Edmond Dantes is not a generic fox as Homer simpson believe. He is a dark, powerful, unforgiving figure, but he can be generous. Here he looks like a generic fighter and sme his dark charm as in the book. Lower than the French version of 1929.

THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO is one of Alexandre Dumas père's most successful novels, along with THE THREE MUSKETEERS. Eugene O'Neill's father, James O'Neill, made a career of the role for decades, committing an abbreviated version of it to the screen in 1913. Indeed, the IMDb lists more than thirty screen adaptations of the work. The most successful version was, I feel, the 1975 version starring Richard Chamberlain. Yet all of the versions I have seen -- about a dozen of them -- struggle to simply tell the tale, let alone infuse the story with the depth and breadth of Dumas' novel, which runs to a thousand pages in full translation, a novel which encompasses issues of morality, godliness, the Vampire Theater of Paris which flourished for half a century in France -- and the ultimate futility of vengeance.

Therefore, it is a shock to see this movie, recently restored and issued on DVD by Flicker Alley, directed by little-remembered Emmett J. Flynn in a two-DVD set with the recently rediscovered BARDELYS THE MAGNIFICENT. This is a wonderful retelling of the story, with fine performances in what was heralded as 'an all-star cast'. The script is carefully written to cover the scenes not shown on the screen. If the print seems, at times, to be a bit washed out, this apparent failure can be laid on the film stock of the era: the orthochromatic film that had been a standard of the industry for almost thirty years would be superseded within a couple of years by faster, panchromatic stock that could film blues more effectively.

If the story seems a bit rushed and more straightforward in its telling than seems proper: alas, that's what happens when you try to get so a long story into a two-hour picture, folks, and director Flynn does a highly competent job, given the Augean task.

Other reviewers for the IMDb have written that John Gilbert does not really seem to be John Gilbert in this picture. True enough, but he is not busy being John Gilbert the star, but an actor playing the Count of Monte Cristo, born Edmond Dantes in the fertile mind of Dumas. Although the modern film-goer may have some issues with the conventions of a movie made almost ninety years ago, those who enjoy silent films will find little reason to regret the time they spend watching this version.

Bad adaptation of the book. Hollywood is a failure to adapt the count of monte cristo. Hollywood should learn from the Russians, who made a great adaptation with th count of monte cristo in Uznik zamka if (1988).

The dashing John Gilbert is really quite good in this two-part adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas adventure. He is the wronged "Edmond", who finds himself the subject of jealousy and ambition before being sentenced to life imprisonment in the fearsome "Chateau D'If" prison. After many years in captivity, he is visited by the elderly Abbé Faria (Spottiswoode Aitken) who has been trying to tunnel his way out for many years, but has actually only managed to get to this nearby cell. Both victims of huge injustice, they become friends with the elder man teaching the younger a myriad of skills and languages before, just as he is dying, imparting some news about the legendary treasure of Monte Cristo. Substituting himself for the corpse, he manages to find safety, the treasure and is soon on the trail - in part two - of the three men he holds responsible. "de Villefort" (Robert McKimm); "Danglars" (Albert Prisco) and "Mondego" (Ralph Cloninger) who also managed to seduce his betrothed - the young "Mercedes" (Estelle Taylor). His clever entrapment of these three is based on allowing their greed, avarice, ambition and mistrust to do his heavy lifting for him - and he sits by facilitating and enjoy their destruction of each other. The first part of this works better, I felt. The sense of betrayal and the claustrophobic nature of his imprisonment better suited the rather static, though decent quality, of this production. It also featured the scene stealing performances of William V. Mong as the duplicitous "Caderouse". The second part climaxes well, with effective efforts from just about all - including a lovely series of scenes from the "Princess Haidee" (Virginia Brown Faire - a lady with very expressive eyes); but the swordplay and the general denouement fall a little flat as the technique of director Emmett Flynn relies more on a barrage of inter titles, single character scenes and lingering - if quite potent - close ups a little too much. This story of betrayal, bitterness, revenge and ultimately happiness is a great one and whilst this is maybe not the best version, it still packs a lot into 100 minutes.

This is the earliest adaptation of the novel that I could find on the internet. It was taken during the silent era. There are many characters and some of them are introduced a little too fast. The second part of the movie is different from others. But it has some memorable moments, like the underwater shots and the sword fight scene. Generally, the cinematography and costume designs are beautiful.